Mastermind or translator? Somali piracy trial begins in Washington

November 04, 2013|Reuters

By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. trial of a Somali manaccused of piracy off the Horn of Africa began on Monday, withprosecutors portraying him as a ransom-hungry negotiator and hislawyers defending him as an intelligence source for the UnitedStates who served as a translator.

Ali Mohamed Ali, a former Washington, D.C., resident, ischarged with helping Somali pirates who seized a Danish cargovessel in November 2008 negotiate a $1.7 million ransom to freethe 13 crew members and the ship. He has pleaded not guilty toall charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julieanne Himelstein told the juryin U.S. District Court in Washington that Ali was not a meretranslator for the pirates but was a negotiator who arranged fora $75,000 side payment for himself after the 71-day hijackingwas over.

"The defendant didn't have to have a gun. His mouth was hisgun, and that was the most important gun on board because it wasthe gun that got them the money," she said in her openingstatement.

But defense attorney Matthew Peed said Ali, who was hopingto obtain U.S. residency, had been a source in Somalia for theU.S. Department of Homeland Security and later advised theDanish shipping company, Clipper Group, about Somali pirates.

The first thing he did after the ship was released was tocontact DHS with details about the ordeal, he said.

"That's not the action of a pirate conspirator, of a hostagetaker," Peed said.

SIDE DEAL

He said Ali had requested the $75,000 side deal to getagreement from one faction of the pirates that was demanding alarger share.

Armed pirates seized the 7,000-tonne cargo ship CEC Futurein the Gulf of Aden on Nov. 7, 2008, while it was sailing fromBelgium to Indonesia.

The Future was taken to the Somali port of Eyl, where itremained until after Clipper agreed to pay the ransom and thelast pirates left the ship on Jan. 16, 2010.

An affidavit states that Ali, who had come to the UnitedStates in 1981 at 19 on a student visa, contacted Clipper viathe ship's satellite phone to give it the pirates' initialdemand for $7 million.

Ali, who returned to Somalia in 2007, helped the pirates ingathering and identifying the crew's documents and dismissedmany of Clipper's offers as unacceptable to the pirates. Theship's captain believed Ali "not only represented the piratesbut directed the course of the negotiations," the affidavitsays.

Ali is charged with piracy, conspiracy, attacking a vesseland hostage-taking, and faces life in prison if convicted. Hehas been held in jail for two and a half years.

Niels Mathiesen, who was head of safety and quality controlat Clipper when the hijacking occurred, testified for theprosecution that Ali was the first person the company had talkedto from the ship after the seizure.

But under defense questioning, he said Clipper had soughtout Ali to try to identify and prosecute pirates involved in theseizure. "We used all sources available to us," he said.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone and DouglasRoyalty)